


Breaking a Promise

by friendofspiderman



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), BAMF May Parker (Spider-Man), Confrontations, Gen, Identity Reveal, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Spider-Man Identity Reveal, Spider-Man: Homecoming Compliant, Supportive May Parker (Spider-Man), Worried May Parker (Spider-Man)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25177783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friendofspiderman/pseuds/friendofspiderman
Summary: May discovers her nephew is Spider-Man, and makes a promise--if Peter stops keeping secrets from here on out, she won't confront Tony Stark.But when more details about Peter's past battles begin to surface, will May be able to keep her word?
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 89





	1. Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Of course my first ever one-shot had to be May. I simply adore her! 
> 
> Every time I watched the reveal in Homecoming I'd thought, "If I was May, I'd go OFF on Tony Stark." But she and I have very different personalities, so I thought it'd be fun to think about how a "cool aunt" might handle the situation. 
> 
> I'd love to hear your theories on how the reveal went down!

Two days. 

That’s how long it had been since May had found out her fifteen-year-old was a superhero. 

_Fifteen._

He’s only fifteen. Her kid is Spider-Man, flirting with danger every night, and he is _fifteen._

It had been two days. Two days since she finally had answers to the questions she’d been asking for months. 

_“Where were you last night? I heard you come in at 1am.”_

_“Your English teacher says you dropped two letter grades, are you okay?”_

_“Why are you wearing a hoodie, it’s 75 degrees outside.”_

He never answered any of it. Not directly, at least. And her kid wasn’t one to lie, so this behavior was...strange. Well, at first it was strange. Then it was concerning. Then it kept her up at night, so late that she could hear Peter coming in through his window at 2am.

 _Through his window_. How was he doing that? 

She wasn’t going to ask, because she wouldn’t get an answer. 

But now, May finally had an answer. Her kid was Spider-Man. 

_THE_ Spider-Man!! _**Her** kid!! _

* * *

After the big falling out, May tried not to press the issue too much. She tried to choose her battles. She had to, after putting him through the wringer for an entire day after the discovery. 

“ _Peter, people are shooting at you!!”_

_“I can avoid it!!”_

_“You can AVOID it??”_

It took nearly a half hour of yelling and talking over each other for the conversation to go anywhere productive, but eventually they landed on paintball. May had been skeptical, but Peter insisted that even if he was unarmed, blindfolded, and facing the other direction, he’d be able to dodge each and every colorful bullet. 

As the single guardian of a highschool boy, May was an excellent shot. So she was surprised and relieved to find that, no matter how she tried, she couldn’t hit him--Peter seemed to possess some sort of sixth sense. 

May relaxed considerably after that. And after more long discussions, the two came to an understanding. Peter had promised not to lie or keep secrets from May anymore, and in return, May had promised not to call Tony Stark. 

She’d wanted to confront the billionaire superhero from the start of the discovery. She wanted to find out why, exactly, the man thought it was acceptable to ask a fifteen-year-old to fight his battles.

But Peter had insisted she leave it alone. “Mr. Stark” had enough on his plate, he argued. He’d begged the man to let him go to Germany and fight, he explained, but that was the end of it. He wasn’t an Avenger, he didn’t want to be, and she didn’t need to bug Mr. Stark because he would tell her everything from then on.

May was reluctant, but she’d seen desperation in Peter’s eyes and caved. She wanted him to trust her. 

So it was settled. Peter wouldn’t keep any more secrets, and May wouldn’t contact Tony Stark. It was a fair trade in May’s mind. If she could trust Peter to communicate again, then she trusted his insistence that she leave Stark alone.

After these sincere promises were made by both parties, May thought that they were in a good place. Good enough, anyway. She’d pry more later. But for now, Peter wanted things to go back to normal. And May wanted that, too. 

* * *

But it had only been two days, so the apartment’s atmosphere was tenser than normal. Peter, already a great kid (and previously an “easy” kid), was acting as angelic as May had ever seen.

He went above and beyond in household chores. He cleaned the bathroom even though it didn’t need it, vacuumed the carpet after eating on the couch, and offered to pick up her groceries after school. Most notably, he didn’t leave the apartment at night. Not even when May woke up to sirens. 

She had to hand it to him--Peter was trying. 

And so it was, on a Saturday afternoon, Peter was making May chocolate chip cookies. He’d made a special trip to the store to get her favorite dark chocolate chips, since all they had in the apartment was semi-sweet.

May was nestled into the loveseat, flipping through a magazine as Peter hummed to himself in the kitchen. Her shoulders, tense from the stress of the past two days, relaxed as the smell of the fresh cookies wafted into the living room. 

“That smells amazing, Peter.” 

“Yeah?” His voice held that awkward guardedness it had since the fallout, but it was earnest as ever. “Thanks, yeah, they look ok-- _AH-”_ Peter sucked in a gaspas the cookie sheet clanged onto the stove. “ _Shit.”_

May was in the kitchen in two seconds flat. “Peter, you okay? What happened--” 

“It’s fine, May, it’s fine, I just--I wasn’t looking and my arm hit the edge of the oven, it’s not--” 

“Let me see.” She demanded, extending her hand. Peter reluctantly showed her, revealing a considerably red mark on his right forearm. 

“See?” He said, “No big--” 

“That’ll be sore if you don’t do something, c’mere.” May pulled Peter over to the sink and turned on the faucet. “You need to rinse that under cold water for five minutes, here--” 

“May, it’s not a big deal,” Peter protested as he tried to wriggle his arm out the stream. “Honestly, just lemme--” 

“Just _stay_ , okay? You don’t want this to sting later--” 

“Yeah, but May, c’mon, I gotta go to Ned’s, I don’t have time--” 

“It can _wait_ , Peter, why are you--”

“ _It’s not a big deal!!_ ” He threw up his hands in exasperation. “I’ve gotten bad burns before, I’ve had way, way worse, I--” 

Peter caught himself and abruptly stopped talking. May felt the color drain from her face as she took a step back from her nephew. 

She took a shaky breath. “What do you mean, way worse?” 

Peter focused on his arm now, suddenly complying with May’s orders to keep the burn under the water and doggedly refusing to meet her eyes. 

“It’s nothing, forget it, nothing big...” 

May shook her head. “You told me you’ve never been seriously hurt. You said just some bruises and scrapes here and there. When did you get burned?” 

He shifted his weight and shrugged, focusing even more determinedly on the faucet. 

“Peter.” 

He wouldn’t answer. 

May felt lightheaded.

He’d promised her there’d been no injuries. He’d said the black eye after Germany was the worst of it. She’d accepted this as the truth, since her kid didn’t lie, but this...

May’s mind began swimming with memories, things she’d willingly pushed aside since the discovery that _her kid was Spider-Man_. 

Homecoming. 

“ _And Ned’s parents are okay with you staying over? Okay, well, if you’re sure. Yeah, you can stay. As long as you let me know later how things went with Liz.”_

When he did finally return home, he’d worn a hoodie and gloves for days. Inside the house. He said he felt cold because he was sick, and she assumed he was coming down with something after feeling heat on his forehead. But he was skittish, flinched at her touch, wouldn’t return hugs or a high-five... 

May recalled the news report from that night. Some witnesses reported a small figure with goggles at the scene of the Stark Industries plane crash at Coney Island. No one had been certain who the goggled-clad figure was, but May, horrified, was putting the pieces together.

It was Peter. He was there, as Spider-Man. Caught in the fire. 

Peter's eyes flitted toward May’s cautiously, then quickly cast back down when she tried to meet his gaze. 

“Peter. Homecoming. That was you, at the scene of the crash. That was Spider-Man?” 

He didn’t respond.

May knew he couldn’t lie to her, not now.

She had her answer. 

Something burned in May’s soul. Her kid had been in danger for months, and she didn’t know. He’d been hurt and she didn’t know. He was lying to her now, and she didn’t know. 

Someone _did_ know.

Tony Stark.

He allowed all of this to happen. He’d known about the lies, and he’d encouraged them. 

Stark had known for three months. May had known for _two days_.

She looked at her nephew’s face. His sweet, trusting, fifteen-year-old face. She couldn’t wrap her head around it, any of it. 

_Her kid was Spider-Man_. He’d been Spider-Man for months. He was in so much more danger than he’d let on.

And he couldn’t look at her. 

“I have to go.” May said shortly, as she strode into the living room to grab her purse and keys. 

“Wait, May, stop, stop--where are you going?” Peter turned the faucet off and started for her, “What are you gonna--”

“Put your arm right back under that water, Peter,” May ordered, cutting off further attempts to protest with a stern “ _NOW.”_ She opened the door and shot him a look, watching as he reluctantly complied. “You have four more minutes on the clock.” 

“Okay, okay, but May--” 

“ _Stay here._ I’m just going out to clear my head.” 

May locked the door behind her, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

She didn’t want to do this. She wanted Peter to trust her. But these secrets had endangered him more than he’d let on, and the time for diplomacy was through.

May squared her shoulders and left the apartment building quicker than she ever had. 

It had only been two days, but she was going to break a promise.

She was going to confront Tony Stark. 


	2. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re lucky he’s more reasonable than you are and turned you down, because if he accepted—if he went to battle with you and all your super pals— _adult_ super pals—if he was in even more danger than his usual ‘patrols’ put him in, I can’t even begin to—”
> 
> “Mrs. Parker, your nephew may be in dangerous situations, but he handles himself very well. He’s really an extraordinary kid—”
> 
> “I _know_ , Stark,” she interrupted involuntarily, “You think I don’t know that?? I have _always_ known that."  
>    
> \--- 
> 
> May breaks a promise. She confronts Tony Stark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had absolutely no intention of ever writing a part two of this fic, but I couldn't resist. May had a lot to say and I wanted her to say it! 
> 
> Please note that, although May criticizes Tony a lot in this (and I believe she has every right to), it was not meant to be an anti-Tony fic in any way. Just an honest look at his mentorship skills in Homecoming from a mom's perspective.

May burst through the guest entrance of Stark Industries, immediately crossing the sleek floor design to a receptionist’s desk. 

“May I help you, ma’am?”

“Yes. I need to speak with Tony Stark. Is he here?”

“Ma’am, it’s Saturday—”

“ _Is he here._ ”

The receptionist looked startled. “He is, ma’am, but if you don’t have an appointment—”

“Do whatever you need to do to get me in contact with him.” May said, talking quickly as her heart continued to race. 

“One moment, please,” he said, turning toward his phone system. His eyes widened when it lit up instantly and he tapped his earpiece to take a call. May watched as his eyebrows raised and head bobbed up and down. “Yes. Yes sir, I will do that right away. Of course.”

He cleared his throat as he hung up the phone and looked at her. “May Parker?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Mr. Stark is waiting for you upstairs, ma’am.”

Moments later, equipped with a key card that gave her unfettered access to the 20th floor, May stood in the elevator and willed herself to take even breaths.

Tony was expecting her, so Peter had obviously given the man a heads-up.

_Why didn’t anyone give her a heads-up that her kid was Spider-Man?_

She thought back to everything Peter had told her about Tony’s involvement in his superhero identity and wondered how much of it was a lie.

 _Before Spider-Man, her kid didn’t lie_. 

According to Peter, “Mr. Stark” had accepted him for the “hero internship” he’d applied for, and Peter had asked to go to Germany and fight the “rogue Avengers” as a training mission. There, the man gave him a million-dollar suit to keep, equipped with protocols to keep him safe. Peter had lost the hero internship on the day of the ferry incident because Tony worried about his safety. (“ _Like he always does, May_.”) Mr. Stark had checked in with Peter from time to time and even rescued him from drowning in a lake on one occasion, so the safety features were doing their job.

 _That_ element to the story—the safety element—was one of the only things that kept May from confronting Tony Stark two days ago. Especially after she had coaxed the most concerning bit of information out of Peter—the man had brought him to the new compound upstate and asked him to be an Avenger.

Her fifteen-year-old child. _An Avenger._

The man really didn’t know squat about teenagers, did he?

The elevator doors opened up to a large and modern living area, where Tony was leaning against a table with his arms crossed. He smiled when he saw May and took a few steps toward her.

“Ah, May, so good to see you—”

“It’s Mrs. Parker.” She stepped out of the elevator.

Tony shrugged. “Works for me. I’m an engaged man now, after all.” He winked, and May realized she found his swagger more repulsive than charming in light of recent revelations. 

Tony casually gestured to an open chair, raising his eyebrows, but May shook her head sharply. He shrugged again and re-folded his arms.

“So you’re here to talk about Peter. He tells me you found out he’s—”

“Let me cut to the chase, Stark—” 

“Please do.”

May exhaled.

On her way over to the tower, she hadn’t been sure where to begin. Now that she was standing in front of the billionaire, the words spilled out.

“I do not appreciate your lying to me about my kid’s secret life. I do not appreciate you encouraging him to keep his secret identity from _me,_ his guardian—”

“Now hold on May,”

“ _Mrs. Parker_.”

“Right. I didn’t tell him to keep this a secret from you, he did that on his own—”

“But you knew and didn’t tell me—”

“Yes, but I figured the decision fell to him, so I didn’t—”

“You could have swayed him in the right direction at the very _least,_ ” May said, exasperated, “I deserved to know! I deserved to know that Peter was putting himself in danger every day, I— _I deserved to know_.”

Tony uncrossed his arms to place them behind him against the table, shifting his weight.

“And I cannot _believe_ you tried to make Peter an Avenger. I mean _really_ , Stark?? You wanted a fifteen-year-old to fight your battles for you? _What were you thinking??_ ”

“Ma—Mrs. Parker, I—” He coughed. “Well I didn’t realize he knew, he—he thought it was a test—”

“He’s not an _idiot_ , Stark, he figured it out eventually—”

Tony chuckled. “Yeah, the kid’s pretty smart—”

“You’re lucky he’s more reasonable than you are and turned you down, because if he accepted—if he went to battle with you and all your super pals— _adult_ super pals—if he went to battle _again,_ I should say, don’t think I forgot about Germany—if he was regularly in even more danger than his usual ‘patrols’ put him in, I can’t even begin to—”

“Mrs. Parker, your nephew may be in dangerous situations, but he handles himself very well. He’s really an extraordinary kid—”

“I _know_ , Stark,” she interrupted involuntarily, “You think I don’t know that?? I have _always_ known that.” Her hand came to her forehead. “But he is _not_ extraordinary just because he’s Spider-Man. He’s extraordinarily kind, and responsible, and patient, and understanding, and helpful, and smart, and affectionate, and gentle, and trusting, he’s _way_ too trusting, and _good—_ Peter is so _good_ , Stark.”

She felt her eyes become hot with angry tears as she continued. She didn’t care.

“He is _too good,_ and that’s how I know he won’t stop. He’ll keep going, he’ll keep being Spider-Man, and I can’t stop him. I know I can’t stop him, I know I couldn’t have stopped him _months_ ago when he first had these powers.”

She stopped and locked eyes with the billionaire.

“But that’s not the point, Stark. The point is that _he’s my kid_. Not yours. You don’t get to make the decision to enable his superhero shenanigans. _I’m_ his person. _I_ make those decisions.”

Tony looked like he wanted to interject with a counterpoint again, but he didn’t.

“Mrs. Parker, please have a seat.”

“No.”

“Alright.” He shrugged as he sat opposite her, looking less confident and in-control than May had ever seen him. “Here’s what I have to say—” A pause. “You’re right.”

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, as if the previous words were difficult to get out. “You are right, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone behind your back. I definitely shouldn’t have taken him to Germany. And it was probably stupid to ask him to join the team. But I don’t regret making him a better suit. Or keeping tabs on his ‘superhero shenanigans.’”

For the first time, there was a true break in conversation. May hadn’t expected an immediate apology from Tony. It was half-baked, but it was there.

She briefly considered continuing her list of grievances—she was angry Tony had flirted with her to win her trust, angry about the “cover-up” videos she’d been sent, and angry her kid had to be the responsible one when it came to passing up a spot on the Avengers’ “team”—but she thought better of it. She couldn’t deny there had to be positives to the situation overall.

She leveled her breath before responding.

“Thank you for that.”

“For…”

“For looking out for him. I hate that you lied to me, I hate that you helped him lie, but I appreciate—” She felt her voice wavering and composed herself again—“I appreciate that your suit helps keep him safe. More safe than his sweat suit, anyway.”

Tony nodded. “That’s why I let him keep it. It’s got safety protocols built in, and—”

“I know, he told me all of that a few days ago, when I first found out.”

She finally sat down and dropped the tension from her shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Tony. A lot of this was on me, not you.”

“On—” She could feel the surprise in his voice. “Oh?”

“I wasn’t thinking straight when you showed up. I was happy, and proud, and wanted him to have a good opportunity. But I shouldn’t have let you alone with him, and I shouldn’t have let him go on your ‘retreat’ right off the bat. I knew something was off and I ignored the signs.”

The guilt May had felt for the past two days turned in the pit of her stomach. She wasn’t without fault in Peter’s dangerous lifestyle, and she knew it. Part of the anger she’d directed at Tony was anger she felt with herself.

She’d told Peter to trust his instincts when it came to Tony, and she hadn’t trusted her own. 

His voice interrupted her thoughts. “And I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have taken the suit away—”

“You WHAT?”

Tony balked. “I—he didn’t tell you?”

May’s head was spinning. She stood again.

“When. Why.”

Tony stood too. “A few weeks ago, when he all but destroyed the ferry…”

May remembered.

 _I lost the Stark Internship_.

He lost the suit.

Spider-Man took down a man fighting with alien tech in his sweats.

“…I was nervous, I thought he wasn’t ready for it, and I guess I thought he was safer if—”

“ _Safer?”_

May paused, trying and failing to breathe deeply, hearing Peter’s voice in her head.

_I’ve gotten bad burns before, I’ve had way, way worse—_

She swallowed walked toward Tony slowly.

“THIS is why you don’t get to control my kid, Stark. You act like you know his goodness, his sense of responsibility—well if you _really_ knew him and how extraordinary he is, you’d know he wouldn’t stop just because he doesn’t have a million-dollar costume. He’s _too good_. So your little ‘punishment’ put my kid in danger. You took away his safety net, and he _still_ went and saved your ass, saved your plane, in a _sweat suit_.”

Tony appeared on the verge of backing away, but May didn’t care. She was shaking, standing resolute right in front of him now.

“And he got _hurt_ , Stark. He had burns all over his body, saving _your_ stuff.”

Tony looked stricken. He shook his head sharply and looked down as the last bit of self-assurance left his countenance.

“He didn’t tell me he got hurt.” He said quietly.

“Did you check in with him?” She pressed. “Did you ask?”

May got no response.

She took a deep breath.

“Stay away from my kid, Stark.”

And she left without looking back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was really, really hard deciding whether or not to tag a part two onto the first chapter of this, since it was the first fic (and work of fiction, actually) I have ever written. I know it doesn't have the same "feel" as the first chapter, but that was intentional--in part one, May is doing a lot of thinking. In part two, she is tired of thinking and ready to speak her mind. 
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed reading! They truly make my day, every time. <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3
> 
> One last note--the idea that Peter had spent the night at Ned's after Homecoming was inspired by @friendlyneighborhoodsecretary's "I Got You" fic. It's the loveliest fic ever written about Peter and Ned's friendship, so if you are somehow reading this without ever having read that gem of a work, please go give it a read!


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